Cable-traction apparatus.



v 0. J. EASTMAN.

CABLE TRACTION. APPARATUS.

. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 29, 1910. I 980,220. Patented Jan. 3, 1911.

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ll II II II Ii mm x a 0. J. EASTMAN. CABLE T'RAGTION APPARATUS. 'urumrlon Hui) JUNE 29, 1910. 980,220, Patented Jan 3,1911.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CLiYDE I. EASTMAN, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

CABLE-TRACTIO N APPARATUS.

Application filed June 29, 1910.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that, I, CLYDE J. Easruwx, citizen of the United States, anda resident of Los Angeles, in the county of Les .'\ugelcs and State ofCalifornia, have invented certain new and useful improvements inCable-Traction Apparatus, of which the following is a full, clear, andexact specification.

My invention is mainly concerned with cable traction apparatus in whichtwo cu gine units are employed, one at each end of the field, and acable to which the plows, etc., are attached, which cable is drawnacross the field by winding it. onto a drum carried by one unit, whileit is simultaneously unwound from a drum carried by the other unit,although it might beemployed in connection with an apparatus of the general type shown in my Patents, No. 681,632, granted August 27, 1901, andNo. 900,060, granted September 2-9, 1908, for reeling up the cable whena field is completed and the apparatus is to be removed.

In devices of the two-unit class above described, so far as I am aware,prior to my invention, it has been the practice to apply the ower forwinding up the cable directly to .t e reel upon which the cable is beingwound, with the result that the power required in the engine varied froma comparativel smallamount when the reel was prac' tical y empty, to acomparativelyv lar e amount when the reel was practically ful as it willbe obvious that the effective ratio of the power as ap lied diminishessteadily as the reel is fille and its eti'ective diameter is increased.This arrangement necessitated the emlplo ment of engines having anunnecessar' y arge horsepower during most of the time, if they were notin danger of bein stalled as the end of the winding approa ed. It wasfurther open to the objection that the wear on the cables wasunnecessarily great on account of the greatstrain that was up lied tothe reel toward the end of the winding. Moreover the cable was liable tobe wound irregularly on the real, and as a consequence it would sit whenthe strain became very t, throng sudden strains and jars on t eapparatus, which was very destructive to the h cables and apparatus. Toobviate all these objections, instead of a. plying the main traction warto the cab a through the reels upon which. is stored, I employ windingSpecification of Letters Yatcnt.

e of the Patented Jun. 3. 1911.

Serial No. 669,452.

[ drums, such as are shown in my aforesaid l patents, through whichdrums the cable is drawn. and then wound upon a reel hv the applicationthereto of only the uccessarv power to wind up thecahlc as it is fedthrough the drums.

To illustrate my invention, l annex hereto two sheets of drawings, inwhich the same reference characters are used to designate identicalparts in all the figures, of which,--

Figure 1 is a top plan View of one engine unit of my apparatus equippedwith the reel, which may be used as one of the two engine units wherethe cable is to be drawn back and forth across the field, or whichmight. be used to be drawn back and forth acro the field upon the cable,which in this case is stationary, as in my aforesaid lutents, Nos.081,682- and 900,000; Fig. 52 is a plan view showing the reel-drivingconnec tions on a larger scale; Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail in sectionon the line BB of Fig.1; Fig. 4 is a side elevation of said drivingconnections, as seen on line AA of Fig. 1 and Fig. .5 is a diagrammaticview illustrating two units connected by a cable, showing how they areused in the preferred system.

Referring first to Fig. 5, I employ at each end of the field acable-winding apparatus, which preferably consists of running gears 10having a pair of sheaves 11 and 12 around which the cable 13 is adaptedto be wound by driving the drums from some suitable power, such as anengine 14 carried by the apparatus, and illustrated in Fig. 1, butomitted from the diagrammatic view under consideration. I preferablyprovide the running gears with a pair of traction wheels 15, to whichthe engine can be coupled, so that its position at the end of the fieldcan be changed as is desirable between each passage of the plows orother agricultural ap paratus 16 across the field. The cable is drawnfrom one unit to the other, being drawn around the drums 11 and 12 ofone unit and wound upon the associated reel 17, while it is at the sametime being unwound from the reel of the other unit and drawn about itsdrums 11 and 12. The plows or other im lenients 16 are preferablyarranged so that they can be operated in either direction, so that theydo nothave to beturned around at the end of the field, but-I might, ifdesired, employ the couplings 18 adjacent the plows, as indicated indotted lines in grip of the drums on the cable.

Referring now to Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4, in which suitable apparatus isillustrated more in detail, the traction wheels and the steering wheels19 may be employed to support the general framework of the machine inany desired manner, and at the front of the machine, where the cable 13is received, I provide suitable tension apparatus 20, over which thecable is drawn as it passes to the drum 11, around one groove of whichit passes to the drum 12, around one groove of which it passes back tothe drum l1, and so on, until as many loops are taken in the cable asare necessary to provide the necessary The cable passes from the drum 12around a guiding sheave 21, shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, to theguiding sheave 22, by which it is directed to the tension andlaying-down roller mechanism 23, through which it passes-to the reel 24.The engine shaft is coupled or uncoupled, as desired, by means of aclutch 2G to the shaft 27, which may be connected by the bevel gearpinions 28 with a bevel gear wheel 29 so as to vary the speed at whichthe shaft 30, on which the bevel gear wheel is secured, is driven. Theshaft 30 has splined thereon a gear pinion 31, which can he slid bysuitable mechanism into and out of operative engagement with a gearpinion 32, which meshes with gear wheels 33 and 34 secured to the drums11 and 12, respectively, so that when desired the drums may be drivenfrom the engine 14. To drive the traction wheels in moving the engine atthe end of the field, I-provide the gear pinion 35, which can beoperatively connected to the shaft 30 upon which it is mounted by meansof the clutch 36. A train of gearing 37 extends from the gear pinion tothe shaft 38 which carries the pinions 39 meshing with spur gear wheels40 secured on the traction wheel 15 to drive the same in the customarymanner.

The general construction and connections thus far described are shown assubstantially the same as those of my Patent/No. 938,655, dated November2, 1909, and reference is made to theaforesaid patent for details, ifsuch information is desired.

The tension and laying-down roller mechanism is preferably driven bymeans of a spur gear pinion 4.1, indicated in otted lirus in Fig. 1, on.the under side of the spur gear wheel 33 and meshing therewith, andsecured on the shaft 42, which is journaled in suitable bearings andextends to the tension and laying-down mechanism 23, which it operates.At a convenient point, this shaft 42 has secured thereon the sprocketwheel 43, which is connected by the sprocket chain 44 with a sprocketwheel 45, WlllCh is secured on the sleeve 46 mounted adjacent th reel24, which is secured on a shaft 47 suitably journaled in the bearings 48and 49 in the arm 50 extendim from the rear of the machine back of oneof the traction wheels 15. The sleeve 46 has formed on its inner end aseries of beveled slip-clutch teeth which cooperate with a correspondingset of teeth on the cooperating clutch member 49 splined on the shaft-4? and held in engagement with the sleeve 46 by means of the powerfulhelically coiled expanding-spring 51 surrounding the sha ft 47 andinterposed between the sleeve 46 and the bearing 48. The ratio of thedrums 11 and 12 and the smallest diameter of the reel 24 and of thesprocket wheels 43 and 45 is such that when the reel is empty, the reelis driven just fast enough to reel iup the cable as it passes around thedrums, but of course it will be understood that as the layers of thecable on the reel increase, it will tend to wind the cable up fasterthan it is drawn around the drums, and for this purpose the slip clutch.between the members 4G and 49 is provided, as it: will be ap arent thatif the reel tends to draw the ca lo up faster than it is delivered bythe drums, the resistance will cause the two clutch members to separateand allow the necessary slip. \Vhen the cable 15 to be unwound from oneunit, the drums are unclutched and the pull of the cable on the otherunit causes it to be drawn through the non-operating unit in a mannerthat willbe readily apparent.

' As before suggested, the drum may be added to the structure of myaforesaid Patent No. 938,655. and used to wind up the cable after afield has been completed.

lVhile I have shown and described my invention 'as embodied in the formwhich I at present consider best adapted to carry out its purposes, itwill be understood that it is capable of modifications, and that I donot desire to be limited in the interpretation of the following claimsexcept as may be necessitated b the state of the rior art.

What I .c aim as new, and esire to secure by Letters Patent of theUnited States, is:

1. In-a cable traction apparatus, the combination with cable tractiondrums, of a reel associated therewith, and driving mechanism for saiddrums and reel, said mechanism serving to drive the reel at a. variablespeed ,as compared with the speed of the drums so as to wind the cableevenly on the reel despite its increasing efiective diameter.

2. In a cable traction apparatus, the combination with cable tract-iondrums, of a reel associated therewith, driving mechanism for'said drumsand reel, and slip con nections between said driving mechanism and reel.

3. In a cable traction apparatus, the combination with cabletraction-drums, of a reel associated therewith, means for driving saiddrums, and driving connections between said drums and reel. 1 4. In acable traction apparatus, the comassociated therewith, a cable adaptedto be" drawn through the drums and wound upon associated therewith,drawn through the bination with cable traction drums, of a reelassociated therewith, means for driving said drums, and drivingconnections between said drums and reel, said connections including aslip clutch.

5. In a cable traction apparatus, the combination with cable tractiondrums, of a reel associated therewith, a cable adapted to be drawnthroughthe drum's and wound upon the. reel, and driving mechanism forsaid drums and reel. 7

6. In a cable traction apparatus, the com-- bination with cable tractiondrums, of a reel a cable adapted to be drums and wound upon the reel,driving mechanism for said drums and reel, and slip connections betweensaid driving mechanism and reel.

7. In a cable traction apparatus, the combination with cable tractiondrums, of a reel associated therewith, a cable adapted to be drawnthrough the drums and wound upon the reel, means for driving said drums,and.driving connections between said drums and reel.

8. In a cable traction apparatus, the combination with cable tractiondrums, of a reel the reel, means for driving said drums, and drivingconnections between said drums and reel, said connections including aslip clutch.

9. In acable traction apparatus, the com bination with a pair ofseparated units each comprising associated therewith, and drivingmechanismffor said drums and reel, of a cable cable traction drums, areel adapted to be drawn by the drums of one unit ofi of the reel of theother -unit and wound ,on its own reel. v

10. In a cable traction apparatus, the combination with a pair ofseparated units, ,each unit comprising cable traction drums, a reelassociated therewith, means for driving said drums, and drivingconnections between said drums and reel, of a cable adapted to be drawnby the drums of one unit oii of the other reel and wound on its ownreel.

' 11. In a cable traction apparatus, the combination with a pair ofseparated units each comprising cable traction drums, a reel associatedtherewith, driving mechanism for said drums and reel, and slipconnections between said drivmg mechanism and reel, of a cable ada tedto be drawn by the drums of one unit 0 of the reel of the other unit andwound on its own reel.

p 12, In a cable traction apparatus, the combination with a pair ofseparated units, each comprising cable traction drums, a reel associatedtherewith, means for driving said drums, and driving connections betweensaid drums and reels, said connectlons includlng a slip clutch, of acable adapted to be drawn by the drums of one unit off of the reel ofthe other unit and wound upon its own reel. In witness whereof, I havehereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this 21st day of June A. D.1910.

CLYDE J. EASTMAN. [Ls] Witnesses:

R. D. VERCLER, C. G. Jonas.

